


Finally

by eskllmhw



Category: Vampire Academy Series - Richelle Mead
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, F/F, F/M, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-12
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6816523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eskllmhw/pseuds/eskllmhw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the series, Vampire Academy, Rose Hathaway has been living at Court for quite some time, guarding her best friend, Lissa Dragomir, who is the queen of the Moroi world. In whatever free time she has, she is dating her true love, Dimitri Belikov, who is the guardian of Lissa’s boyfriend, Christian Ozera. Towards the beginning of the story, Dimitri asks Rose to marry him, and of course, Rose says yes. But two days after the proposal, Rose goes to a royal banquet with Lissa, and while Lissa is giving her opening speech, Rose is greeted by her father, Abe Mazur, who informs her that St. Vladimirs, Rose’s old guardian school, has been taken over by Strigoi. Rose has to help St. Vladimirs, with the cost of delaying her wedding and other future plans with Dimitri and her other friends. Will she make it to see her wedding?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:  
Thirty of them, all coming at me at the same time. Those undead bastards. I was battling thirty Strigoi, alone. Crazy, right? How would I take them all down without killing myself, or Lissa, in the process? There was no way. I started charging for them and suddenly…I was awake, and a phone was ringing. I leaped out of bed and headed over to my phone to answer it.   
“Hello?” I said, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.  
“Rose? Did I wake you?” I was immediately alert. Dimitri Belikov, my boyfriend, was on the other line. “Dimitri! Yeah I was just getting up to take a shower and get ready.”  
“Rose, it’s 4:30.” he said with a chuckle. “Then again, why am I surprised?”  
“Haha. Anyways, what’d you need?” I asked, curious to figure out why he had called. He barely ever calls, unless it’s urgent. Otherwise, he’ll just walk over to my place.  
“Right. What are you doing in about an hour?”  
“Nothing that I know of. Why? Are we going on some extravagant adventure, like we do?” I questioned with hope in my voice. I hadn’t done anything exciting in almost two months, and it was getting to me.  
He laughed. “Hardly. I’ll be over to pick you up at six. Oh and Rose? Dress nice.” And with that he hung up, and I was left with the biggest smile on my face. Dimitri and I never just got to hang out together like a normal couple because we’re always on guard.   
We’re both guardians of the Moroi, him guarding Christian Ozera, and me guarding my best friend, as well as the queen of the Moroi, Lissa Dragomir. As luck would have it, Christian and Lissa just happen to be dating, so it works out pretty well for Dimitri and I.   
I sprinted to the bathroom to get ready for our date. I jumped into the shower and then headed to my closet to try and figure out something to wear. As always, nothing was working for me. I tried on literally thirteen dresses before finding the perfect one. It was this red, sleeveless dress I had worn to my first royal banquet with Lissa. I quickly put it on, did my hair and makeup and then waited for Dimitri to arrive. After what seemed like forever, but was only like ten minutes, I heard a knock at the door and immediately threw the door open and jumped into his arms.   
“Roza, you look amazing. As always.” He kissed my forehead before asking, “Are you ready to go?”  
“Sure, if you’ll just tell me where the hell we’re going. You know how much I hate being in the dark.”  
He laughed and hugged me tighter.   
“You’ll find out soon enough.” He grabbed my hand and with that we left. We walked for a while before he abruptly stopped. I almost toppled over from surprise, but, of course, he was one step ahead and caught me before saying, “Always prepared for Strigoi, never for surprises.” I laughed. He paused while taking something out of his pocket. “Here put this on.” He handed me a blindfold.  
“Oh hell no. I already have no idea where we are going. You are not about to make that that much harder for me to figure out.”   
“Oh Rose. Just put it on. It’ll be worth it, trust me.”  
After a moment of hesitation, I tied it on my head and grabbed his arm, so I at least had some sense of direction. We walked for about fifteen more minutes before Dimitri told me I could take the blindfold off. What I saw was more than I had ever expected. We were in the Court’s park, under a cover of Magnolia trees, my favorite kind of tree. On the ground was a white tablecloth covered with candles and an enormous spread of my favorite foods.  
“Dimitri.” I said after examining the scene a few moments more. It was one of the most romantic things that Dimitri had ever done for me.  
“Do you like it?”, he asked nervously while running his hand through his long black hair. I had never seen him so scared before. What was going on? “I was afraid you would think it was too cheesy.”  
I rushed over to him and wrapped him in an embrace. “Dimitri this is perfect. All I want to know now is, what’s the occasion?” Of course I was happy about all of this, but I knew that Dimitri hadn’t just done this randomly. Something had to be going on.  
He waited a minute or two before replying.  
“Roza. I have never loved someone the way I love you. The way you smile at me, the way you look in the mornings, the way you sing when you’re in the shower, the way your hair smells. All of these different things that all show how much I love you. You are the most important person in my life, and I never, ever want to lose you. Being the witty mastermind you are, I’m sure you have already figured out where this is going, but I am still going to ask you formally anyways.” He was right. I did know where this is going. It was finally happening. “Rosemarie Hathaway, will you do me the honor of being my wife?”  
Even though I knew what was coming, I threw my hands to my face to hide my tears. I jumped into his embrace and began to sob.  
“Of course, of course I will marry you Dimitri.” He hugged me tight and then set me down so that we could enjoy our picnic.


	2. Chapter 2

I woke up, happier than I had in awhile. I was still in shock about what had happened the night before. After the proposal, we sat on the tablecloth for hours talking and eating. It was just amazing. To make things even better, I keep remembering that in a few months I will be married to Dimitri. Even though my excitement was filling my body, I knew I had to get ready for Lissa’s royal lunch. Every Sunday, all of the royals, as well as a few invited guests, gather in the queens banquet hall and dine on way too fancy foods that cost more than my house does. But, since I was Lissa’s guardian, I had to go.   
I put on my black dress pants and blazer and headed to Court. When I got there, it was a mess, as always. People were yelling and stomping their feet, some were throwing things, and I even saw one girl slap another. Just another hectic council meeting. I walked up to the front and through the back door to go meet Lissa and help her get through the crowd.   
“Rose!” Lissa exclaimed. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere! I was wondering if Dimitri asked yo…” She stopped talking and brought her hand to her mouth. I laughed. I held up my hand to display the beautiful engagement ring that I wore on my finger. Lissa gasped and grabbed my hand to get a better look. “I’m so happy for you! You all will be so happy.” She hugged me.  
“Thanks Liss,” I said. “But now we need to worry about getting you out there.” I motioned for her to follow me, and we head out into the riot.   
It was just as crazy as it had been a moment ago, however, Lissa walked through the crowd with grace. She strode up to her throne and sat down, prepared to endure the Council.  
“Ahhem.” She paused. “Hello everyone. I am Queen Vasilisa, and I am honored to be here with you today.” Her classic opening statement. The meeting was about three hours long and filled with information, but I’ll spare you all of the uninteresting topics that were discussed that day.   
After the meeting was over, Lissa and I walked outside in the courtyard so that she could say goodbye to everyone who left. We were nearing the end of the line and suddenly a surprising visitor approached us. My crazy, unpredictable dad. Abe Mazur, king of showing up at the most unexpected times.  
“Why hello Rose.” He said while nodding at me. “And Queen Vasilisa.” She smiled at him. “Rose, may I speak to you for a moment?”  
“Umm I’m a little busy old man.” I said, as I gestured towards Lissa. She put a hand on my shoulder, while saying, “Go Rose, I’m sure you will just be a moment. Besides I have many other guardians around me.   
After a moment of hesitation, I decided to go with him, besides my dad’s crazy with a lot of things, but he wouldn’t interrupt my work unless it was important. I walked with him over to the gardens and was surprised to see my good friend, Eddie Castile, who was also a guardian, sittin on a bench nearby. He shot up from his comfortable perch as soon as he saw us.  
“Hi Rose,” Eddie said. “Do you know why we’re here?”  
“I wish. Yet again, I’m in the dark.” I rolled my eyes playfully towards Abe.  
“Rose, Eddie. I’m afraid I am the messenger of bad news.”  
“How bad can it be?” Abe tended to exaggerate things, so I didn’t doubt that this was one of those times.  
“Pretty bad.” I still wasn’t sure, but I motioned for him to continue.  
“Okay then,”, he said, “I have just spoken with one of the Strigoi that has taken over St. Vladimirs in secret.” My jaw dropped. He didn’t waste anytime with that now did he? I looked over at Eddie and saw that he wore the same look of shock and confusion that I did.  
“Wha--What?” I asked with a stutter in my voice. This didn’t make any sense. How did they get past all of the guardians and teachers? More importantly, how did they get past the ward?  
“And if you can believe it, it gets worse. The Strigoi I talked to, his name was Matthew by the way, informed me that if your Belikov finds out about this, that,” he paused with anxiousness in his voice, “They will convert every single student to Strigoi, one by one.” This was one of the few times in my life that I have ever been completely speechless. “I guess it’s some sort of revenge of him coming back to you all.” A few years ago, Dimitri was converted to being a Strigoi, not by choice of course. And by some miracle of God, Lissa and I figured out a way to turn him back into a dhampir before it was too late.  
“Why would you tell us this and not some guardian officials?” Eddie questioned. It was the first thing he had said since Abe dropped the bomb.  
“Because he wants us to talk to Lissa and get a group of guardians together to go and fight.”   
“Correct I figur--” I interrupted him with another question.  
“But what I don’t understand is what they think they are going to get out of this. If anything they’ll just lose a bunch of men.”  
“I was wondering that too but after a considerate amount of thought I figured it out. They think that they will be able to convert quite a few dhampirs and Morois to Strigoi. They’ve lost a lot of men this year and need to strengthen their forces.” In the twisted mind of a Strigoi, that made quite a bit of sense.  
I glanced at Eddie in a way that showed that we had to go find Lissa and figure all of this out. Abe understood and said his farewells before Eddie and I jogged off to find Lissa. After about twenty minutes of searching through the lingering crowd, we spotted her heading back to her chambers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that this chapter isn't as long as some of the others. It was the only way to go into the next chapter, which I think you guys will love.

“Lissa!” I cried out. “Wait up.” Eddie and I ran up to her and told her we needed to talk to her, as well as the best group of guardians she could find, excluding Dimitri. She was very confused by this, however, she trusted Eddie and I. We waited about an hour before everyone showed up, and we explained the situation. They were all as shocked as we had been just moments ago.  
“We’re going to need more guardians than we have. Some of our best were posted at St Vladimirs!” A voice said.   
Another piped in with, “We’re all doomed!”, and later burst into tears. A man beside her comforted her.  
Lissa let this go on for a minute or two and then interrupted with, “Stop, all of you! Bickering about how this will be resolved will not help anyone. We will do the only thing that we can do. We will send as many guardians as we can spare to try and fix this. In the meantime, we will put everything else on lockdown.” After this was made, Lissa decided who would go to rescue the school and who would stay on Court. Almost one hundred guardians, including Eddie and I, began to prepare for the attack. But first, I knew I had to talk to Dimitri, and I knew that he wouldn’t be happy about this.  
And of course, I was right.


	4. Chapter 4

“So,” Dimitri asked, “You’re going without me. Even after I just proposed to you.” Ouch. “Rose you have to know how much this hurts me. I’ve finally forgiven myself for the things that I did as a Strigoi, and now it’s come back to haunt me! I can’t help you all to bring back one of my favorite places, and the place where we met might I add, into the hands of the Moroi!”  
“Dimitri,” I said as I grabbed his hand. “I know. You don’t deserve this. You should be coming with us to fight, but if you were to come then everyone would die. Don’t beat yourself up. You did that for too long. All you can do is help out as much as you can around Court and try and do the best that you can. I so badly wish that you could join me, but this is just the way it is. The way it has to be.” I knew that the words hurt him, but every word was the truth. He couldn’t come this time. I pulled him into a hug and promised him that I would be back as soon as I could, and we would pick up right where we left off. “I love you Dimitri. You know that. I don’t want to leave you, and I definitely don’t want to postpone our wedding, but you know the saying. They come first. We’ll get through this, together.”  
“I know Roza. I just wish that I could go with you, but I understand that this is how it is, and I need to accept it.” And with that he kissed me on the forehead, we said our farewells, and I was off to pack for my adventure. I regretted having to leave Dimitri, but there was nothing that I could do. After packing, I went to sleep early because I knew that having to get up in the morning would be horrible. Five freaking am. Won’t the Strigoi still be around at ten?   
Anyways, the next morning I quickly put on my guardian outfit and headed to the gate to meet the others. Even though I knew everyone there, I was still shocked by the numbers. There were so many of us here and so little of us would return. “They come first.” I reminded myself as I walked over to meet Eddie.  
“Hey.” I said.  
“Hey. You ready for today?”  
“You know me, always ready for battle.” This earned me a laugh. Before I had the chance to continue the conversation, a loud whistle blew indicating that it was time to go. We walked over to the group of vans that were waiting for us and quickly found a seat.   
After about a four and a half hour bus ride, we were told that we were almost there and to get ready because we would have to go the rest of the way on foot. We drove for a minute more and then hopped off of the bus. Eddie and I went first and led the group the rest of the way.  
We reached the school about ten minutes later and planned an escape. Run. Fight. Save them. That was basically the idea. Eddie and I were given the job of the “surprise” attack and were to enter from the side. We knew the school really well and knew every in and out, which would help us in the long run. We ran over to the entrance and got ready for our cue, which was this guardian whistle that we always used in situations like this.  
After what seemed like a year of waiting, the signal came, and we sprinted through down that door, ready to take down those monsters. Eddie and I started taking them down immediately. I wish I could tell you how many I took down, but I lost count at eleven. After taking down as many as we could, Eddie and I started running towards the school. We couldn’t waste any time. We had to get as many Moroi out as we possibly could. They come first. I got inside, and I could hardly believe what I saw. Hundreds of them. Hundreds of Strigoi working together to make my life as miserable as possible. I fought and fought and fought until I could hardly breathe anymore. My stake was covered in blood all the way to my fingertips. They come first. I went for another Strigoi, but, shockingly, he was faster than I was. He had me in a choke hold before I could make a move. Despite my struggle, he yanked me off towards the science room whispering, “You really thought you could take all of us you nasty dhampir. Well now, I get the honor of killing Rose Hathaway, slowly and painfully. This will be a story to tell.”  
I hate to use such an obnoxious phrase but I had to say this. “You won’t get away with this.” How basic am I? Took that line right out of a movie. “The guardians always win. We will beat you all again.”  
“You fool yourself. You’re too confident, you and all of your friends.” He motioned towards the other guardians. “You will not win this time Rose. It’s finally over.”  
While he was talking, I didn’t notice that we were reaching the science classroom. He made the Strigoi guards move so he could take me inside. The room was surrounded by Strigoi. Except for one corner. And thank the lord it was near a window.   
I was thrown into a chair and tied down immediately. He then explained to me what would happen. Until I told him what he wanted to know, I would receive no food or water and have to watch as the Strigoi took over. The real question is, what the heck did he want to know? So, I asked him.   
“Okay whatever. But tell me what I have to tell you.”  
“You really don’t know?” He scowled.  
“Why would I spend time asking if I knew? Just tell me so I can get out of here.”  
“We want Dimitri. We want him back on our side.”  
“Wait, you all took over a school, lost dozens of men, and left your homes for one member of your wicked group?”  
“Dimitri was loyal. He was a good member and, quite frankly, we can’t defeat you once in for all if we don’t have him. You will find a way for us to get him back or you, and the rest of them, won’t make it out of here.”  
Great. Before I could say that out loud, he ran out to, I imagine, help his members outside. Of course there were still Strigoi guarding the door, but no others were in sight. I immediately started planning an escape route. I figure if I can get out of the ropes tied around me quietly then I can crawl over to the window and slip through. My biggest worry is that the window will be locked, but it’s a risk I am going to have to take.   
After fumbling with the rope behind my back for a minute, I found the knot and began to untie it. It took a minute, but I finally got all of them untied and slowly moved them off of my body. I waited a second to make sure that none of the guards had heard, or seen, me and then got up and frantically ran towards the window. To my amazement, the window was unlocked. The world was working in my favor today. I leaped out of the window and ran as fast as I could, not looking back to see if I had been followed. I ran as fast as I could, as long as I could before running into Eddie and jumping into his arms. I hadn’t realized how scared I had been until now. He hugged me and told me that it would be okay. We held the embrace for less than a minute before I was greeted by someone that I hadn’t expected to see here.


	5. Chapter 5

“Dimitri!” I exclaimed jumping from Eddie’s arms to his. It only took me a second to jump back and say, “Wait! You have to leave, if they see you everyone will die.”  
He motioned to his hand. “Rose I’m wearing a charm. They won’t recognize me.”  
Why hadn’t I thought of that? I know. Because I’m not Dimitri. He kissed me on the forehead and then broke away, ready for action.  
“Okay so what is the plan?” He asked.  
I explained that I thought it would be best for us to sneak back into the school and grab as many students and teachers as we could. Hopefully we won’t suffer a lot of casualities, but they come first. I had to remember that.  
Now that we had a plan of action, we all found places to get into the school that they hopefully wouldn’t expect. Dimitri, Eddie, and I decided to go in through a hole in the roof and jump down on to them. We got our position and waited for a few minutes to extend the surprise effect.  
“THUD.” We leaped down on top of them and boy were they surprised. I managed to stake three of them right off the bat. Next to me, Dimitri had already staked six of them, and Eddie had two. We fought for what seems like hours, when, finally, we had the whole room taken down and only a few scrapes and bruises. We led all of the students out as quickly as we could, but it was hard since they were all petrified. I saw one young girl that reminded me so much of Jill. I wished I could comfort her, but I knew that I had to go and get the rest. We dropped them off with the guardians and headed straight back in. I probably staked around thirty more Strigoi before we reached the last room. We ran in and didn’t even have to think twice about our attack. Dimitri and I took the middle of the room, and Eddie took the sides. That was the longest battle I have ever been in. Two and a half hours of battling these creatures. It was exhausting. But, I reminded myself, “They come first.”, and kept fighting. I couldn’t stop when so many lives were on the line. I kept going, and, before I had realized it they had all been staked.  
Looking at all of them was horrible. All of these people who were turned into evil monsters had lost their lives. They were all gone. Hundreds of them. Gone. These thoughts kept cycling and cycling until I couldn’t take it anymore. I fell to the ground and started to sob. Dimitri ran to me as fast as he could and wrapped me into his arms. I cried and cried until I couldn’t breathe anymore. I knew I had to get up to help all of the surrounding Moroi, but I just felt so helpless. How could all of these people be turned, most against their will? I would deal with this later. Right now, I had to escort these Moroi back to the vans and get home. I stood up, wiped my eyes, and headed for the door.  
Even though I prepared myself for what I was about to see, I had no idea that so many of our guardians had died. I saw so many faces of people I knew or had seen before, and I almost lost it again, but I stayed strong. I knew if I broke down again I wouldn’t be able to get up and keep going. I found Dimitri’s hand and pushed myself on. I could do this. I knew I could.   
After what seemed like centuries, we finally reached the buses and helped all of the horrified Moroi. I could tell that they were just as heartbroken as I was. When they were all boarded, and we had made sure that we hadn’t been followed, I took a seat towards the front of the bus with Dimitri, who had taken his charm off by then. I didn’t even need to say anything for him to know how scared I was. He pulled me closer to him and said, “Rose, I know that it’s hard. This kind of thing always is. But think about how many lives you saved today. Dozens? Maybe even hundreds. I’m so proud of you.”  
I hadn’t thought about that. I had helped a lot of people hadn’t I? They may have been people that I didn’t know, but all of their lives mattered. This made me feel a lot better, which Dimitri could sense, so he grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “Everything will be okay Roza. It may take time, but you, and all of these people,” he motioned towards the surrounding students, “will be okay. I promise you that.”


End file.
